Happy New Year!
I just returned from New Years on Fraser Island. It was great fun although settled a little uncomfortably with my conservationist tendencies as the place is a 4x4 adventure park set in a rainforest. It is very carefully managed though and the wildlife doesn’t seem to mind the occasional car.
I enjoyed 4x4 driving far more than I expected too, I’m usually a very careful driver (really, I am!) but the second I got behind the wheel of the landrover we hired I got a manic grin and drove for hours over the very rough tracks and along the beach. The eastern beach on the island is very beautiful but feels like a motorway, lots of cars and the occasional aeroplane threatening to land on your head. Driving on hard sand is easy, driving on soft sand is rather more complicated! Saw lots of jelly fish and a few dingoes on the beach and lots of goannas in the forest. There were also lovely lakes and sand dunes scattered around the island. We swam in many different creeks and lakes but not the sea on account of rough currents, sharks and jelly fish.
New Years eve was fairly quiet but we had a nice family meal out and listened to some rather awful live music. The New Year started while we were down by the main resort pool with some champagne, then we retired to our villas hot tub up in the tree canopy on our balcony, not a bad start to 2007!
On the way to Fraser we stopped off first in Byron Bay then in Noosa, both were lovely, Byron is very much beardy central with lots of crystals and chilled out surfers, Noosa is more like the Knightsbridge of Australia, very nice restaurants and family oriented beaches. We watched dolphins swimming from a hill in Noosa.
On the way back from Fraser we stopped off in Brisbane, stayed in a very nice hotel (Marriott) but didn’t see much of the area as it was raining very heavily the next day. We continued our journey stopping at Corumbin wildlife sanctuary, where I finally saw koalas and wombats (so cute!) I also got punched in the face by a rogue kangaroo, I’m not sure if it liked me or hated me but it decided it wanted to be a whole lot closer than I was expecting….no harm done though, I’m glad it bounced at me rather than one of the small children around at the time! My caring mother took a great photo of it attacking me, charming!
Did you know the hairy nosed wombat has a heavily reinforced bottom which it uses to crush the head of any large animal who tries to enter its burrow!
Six days left in Australia, will probably be doing a bit more lying on the beach, some surfing, maybe some cycling, it’s a tough life!
X Sarah
